PA Voter ID Decision Remains on Hold

The day has come. Oral arguments have been presented this morning on the new Pennsylvania Voter ID bill. However, the Pennsylvania State Supreme court today put the Voter ID decision on hold, amidst questions of the lack of time for implementation and potential threat of disenfranchisement.

For those out there who haven’t been following the Voter ID law over the last year, judgement day has arrived. If you haven’t been following along, the controversial, Republican-backed Pennsylvania voter ID law, would prevent anyone from voting without a valid photo ID. Of importance to Penn State students who could previously vote using a regular student ID, the law insists on ID’s bearing an expiration date. The university has responded offering stickers with expiration dates to PSU-issued ID’s.

Here’s why the bill matters…

An estimated 800,000 Pennsylvania voters do not have the proper form of identification to vote, including roughly 250,000 in Philadelphia alone.

While there is an inherant partisan agenda in this bill, more importantly there is a fundamental constitutionally significant violation of Pennsyvlania voters taking place here that everyone should be cognizant of. Taking steps to ensure the elimination of voter fraud is important, but the short period of time available to spread the information of the law requirements and a lack of state efforts to supply ID’s, are likely to have a resounding impact on election day when voters are turned away at the polls.